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Paul Nixdorf
reronica
Unholiday holiday shows
9
5Wally Swan�s public oolicv book
Philanthrofund moves
Vol. 4, No. 29 Issue 184 December 10-December 16,1997
Lobby groups plan legislative strategy
GLCAC becomes Q-Minnesota Coalition to address
ed to make the organization stronger politically and financially.
GLCAC announced in late October that it will also incorporate a political lobbying arm and automate its phone line by the first of the year. The change are part of an 18-month strategic plan that begin last spring and will continue through 1998 as GLCAC studies on the feasibility of creating a GLBT community center.
Describing the. process of finding a new name, GLCAC Executive Director Ann DeGroot said the staff and board brainstormed numerous names in three categories: those with �Q� in them, those with �GLBT,� and names that had no sexual orientation-related words (�Citizens United for Equality,� for example).
Even before they started, she said, the organization knew that the new name needed to be short-
Loring Park problems
er and more inclusive than �Gay and Lesbian Community Action Council.�
The group then took the list of names to two focus groups where DeGroot said, they found that �people liked using �Q� more than �GLBT� or using a closeted name.�
��Minnesota� just came because that�s where we live,� she added. At the end of the process Q-Minnesota �just seemed to fit the best.� GLCAC will unveil a new logo to go with the name.
As Q-Minnesota, the organization will add a companion 501 c (4) organization to its existing 501 c (3), non-profit, tax-deductible entity. The new 501 c (4) piece is slated to become the larger part of Q-Minnesota as its political lobbying arm.
GLCAC continued on page 16
by Rachel Gold ______________
A coalition has formed to address the complex issue of police sweeps for prostitution and problems generated by men cruising for sex in the Loring Park area. President of Citizens for a Loring Park Community (CLPC), Kim Havey, has called together a group that includes representatives from his organization, the Minneapolis Police and the Gay and Lesbian Community Action Council to address those issues.
Some of the complexity of the situation arises from the high percentage of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) residents of the Loring Park Neighborhood. While some of them men cruising for sex in the area are openly gay, many are not In addition, the GLCAC has received calls from gay men
and lesbians in the area who said they were stopped and ticketed by police after dropping off friends or looking for parking. But gays are not only on the receiving end of the sweeps, there are GLBT residents among the number of people who have complained about late night traffic and indecent behavior in the neighborhood.
Havey himself is openly gay and has emphasized that he wants to find a good solution for everyone involved. �I just decided that we�ve had this issue come up before ... and we�ve never really moved anywhere on it,� Havey said. �It always seems to come up again.� He described the coalition as an elementary step, but also as a �breakthrough.�
Loring continued on page 5
by Rachel Gold
With the start of the 1998 Legislative Session a little over a month away, the Gay and Lesbian Community Action Council (GLCAC-Q-Minnesota after Jan. 1) and Minnesota AIDS Project (MAP) are already working on their legislative agendas.
The two organizations overlap mainly in two areas: sodomy law repeal and the need to build coalitions with other organizations. According to the GLCAC, �The Nonfelony Enforcement Advisory Committee, established by our Legislature in 1993 ... has recommended that all unnecessary and unconstitutional sex laws be omitted in the revision process.� Those laws cover fornication, adultery and sodomy.
�The recommendation of the NEAC presents an historic opportunity finally to eliminate this long-lived weapon of anti-gay extremists,� GLCAC explained.
MAP also supports the repeal effort, along with the Commissioner�s Task Force on HIV/STD Prevention which voted unanimously on Nov. 21 to call for repeal of the sodomy law. All three groups are members of the Coalition for Privacy which
aims to provide education and support around the repeal attempt.
In addition, GLCAC has listed its priorities as: domestic partnership; marriage; gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender (GLBT) youth; hate crimes; and protection of the 1993 Human Rights Amendment.
Lobby continued on page 4
Over the years the Loring Park area has seen cruising and prostitution rise and fall, now a coalition of groups is hoping to come up with new solutions to the traffic and safety problems in the neighborhood.
Plans cut for Medicaid AIDS funding
by Rachel Gold
Minnesota AIDS Project Public Policy Director Bob Tracy
With the White House changing its mind about allocating Medicaid coverage to provide treatments for low-income people living with AIDS, Clinton�s Presidential Council on HIV/AIDS has criticized his administration for slackness in the fight against AIDS.
Clinton�s AIDS advisors issued a report last Sunday, far more neg-
Internet summit protects children
by Rachel Gold
What recently held summit featured a list of issues prepared by the Family Research Council (FRC), Focus on the Family, and the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), among others? The Internet Online Summit: Focus on Children, convened Dec. 1-3, brought together an eclectic group of politicians, business people and activists for a look at child safety on the Internet.
In conjunction with the summit, GLAAD released a report on Internet Filtering Software and ratings systems, �Access Denied: The Impact of Internet Filtering Software on the Lesbian and Gay Community.�
�The majority of software currently on the market, as well as new
products in development, place informational Web sites serving the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community in the same categories as sexually explicit sites,� the report said. �The software developers are either unable or unwilling to consider that information about sexual orientation and identity (e.g., a gay square dancing site) has nothing to do with sexual behavior, and everything to do with culture and identity.�
Also in the midst of the summit, Vice President A1 Gore gave a speech in which he enumerated a series of steps toward Internet safety including the release of the U.S. Department of Education�s Parents Guide to the Internet (1-800-USA-LEARN or http://www.ed.gov/pubs/par-
ents/internet/).
�This guide is intended to help parents - regardless of their level of technological know how - make use of the on-line world as an impor-tant educational tool,� said U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley.
The Vice President also announced a new commitment for a �zero tolerance� policy for child pornography on the Internet. He was joined by leading Internet service provider (ISP) associations representing 95 percent of home Internet users and backed up by a new partnership between the leading ISP associations and law enforcement authorities.
Internet continued on page 11
ative than their 1996 report, saying that the White House has decreased the priority of AIDS issues, the Associated Press reported. Included in the list of criticisms was the cancellation of the Medicaid plan.
The report held up Clinton�s increases in funding and research moneys, drug programs and search for a vaccine as examples of excellent advances made by the administration. But it also pointed out that most of the advances occurred during Clinton�s first term.
�Despite substantial and diligent efforts ... the progress in the federal response to AIDS has stalled in recent months, contributing to a sense of diminished priority for AIDS issues during the president�s second term,� the report said.
Two days before the report was released, Department of Health and Human Services spokesman Victor Zonana announced that the plan to cover drug costs with Medicaid would not happen, according to the New York Times.
Currently Medicaid only covers the drugs once a person living with AIDS is disabled by the disease. The new plan would have given drugs to anyone with HIV who is unable to afford treatment.
�The current Medicaid eligibility system is seriously out of alignment with the recommended stan-
dard of care for the treatment of HIV disease,� the Advisory Council report said.
According to the Times: Vice President A1 Gore and other officials hoped the cost of the drugs, up to $15,000 a year, would be offset by the money saved by having healthier patients. However, Zonana explained Friday, �We have not been able to find a revenue-neutral way to do it� The government would only have been able to change the Medicaid policy if the saved hospitalization costs would have balanced out the price of the drugs over a five year period of time.
However, the Times reported that one official said other issues than simple cost drove the decision to cancel the plan. He explained that decision makers were also responding to the advocates for other disease groups who have complained that people with HIV have received better treatment than their groups.
States are under the same constraint as the federal government to make their costs balance out over a five year period, but will not be able to create their own plans for doing so.
The report went on to talk about prevention issues.
Medicaid continued on page 5
After the first of the year, the Gay and Lesbian Community Action Council (GLCAC) will change its name to �Q-Minnesota,� the latest step in a year of changes calculat-
GLCAC/Q-M innesota Executive Director Ann DeGroot
by Rachel Gold

Paul Nixdorf
reronica
Unholiday holiday shows
9
5Wally Swan�s public oolicv book
Philanthrofund moves
Vol. 4, No. 29 Issue 184 December 10-December 16,1997
Lobby groups plan legislative strategy
GLCAC becomes Q-Minnesota Coalition to address
ed to make the organization stronger politically and financially.
GLCAC announced in late October that it will also incorporate a political lobbying arm and automate its phone line by the first of the year. The change are part of an 18-month strategic plan that begin last spring and will continue through 1998 as GLCAC studies on the feasibility of creating a GLBT community center.
Describing the. process of finding a new name, GLCAC Executive Director Ann DeGroot said the staff and board brainstormed numerous names in three categories: those with �Q� in them, those with �GLBT,� and names that had no sexual orientation-related words (�Citizens United for Equality,� for example).
Even before they started, she said, the organization knew that the new name needed to be short-
Loring Park problems
er and more inclusive than �Gay and Lesbian Community Action Council.�
The group then took the list of names to two focus groups where DeGroot said, they found that �people liked using �Q� more than �GLBT� or using a closeted name.�
��Minnesota� just came because that�s where we live,� she added. At the end of the process Q-Minnesota �just seemed to fit the best.� GLCAC will unveil a new logo to go with the name.
As Q-Minnesota, the organization will add a companion 501 c (4) organization to its existing 501 c (3), non-profit, tax-deductible entity. The new 501 c (4) piece is slated to become the larger part of Q-Minnesota as its political lobbying arm.
GLCAC continued on page 16
by Rachel Gold ______________
A coalition has formed to address the complex issue of police sweeps for prostitution and problems generated by men cruising for sex in the Loring Park area. President of Citizens for a Loring Park Community (CLPC), Kim Havey, has called together a group that includes representatives from his organization, the Minneapolis Police and the Gay and Lesbian Community Action Council to address those issues.
Some of the complexity of the situation arises from the high percentage of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) residents of the Loring Park Neighborhood. While some of them men cruising for sex in the area are openly gay, many are not In addition, the GLCAC has received calls from gay men
and lesbians in the area who said they were stopped and ticketed by police after dropping off friends or looking for parking. But gays are not only on the receiving end of the sweeps, there are GLBT residents among the number of people who have complained about late night traffic and indecent behavior in the neighborhood.
Havey himself is openly gay and has emphasized that he wants to find a good solution for everyone involved. �I just decided that we�ve had this issue come up before ... and we�ve never really moved anywhere on it,� Havey said. �It always seems to come up again.� He described the coalition as an elementary step, but also as a �breakthrough.�
Loring continued on page 5
by Rachel Gold
With the start of the 1998 Legislative Session a little over a month away, the Gay and Lesbian Community Action Council (GLCAC-Q-Minnesota after Jan. 1) and Minnesota AIDS Project (MAP) are already working on their legislative agendas.
The two organizations overlap mainly in two areas: sodomy law repeal and the need to build coalitions with other organizations. According to the GLCAC, �The Nonfelony Enforcement Advisory Committee, established by our Legislature in 1993 ... has recommended that all unnecessary and unconstitutional sex laws be omitted in the revision process.� Those laws cover fornication, adultery and sodomy.
�The recommendation of the NEAC presents an historic opportunity finally to eliminate this long-lived weapon of anti-gay extremists,� GLCAC explained.
MAP also supports the repeal effort, along with the Commissioner�s Task Force on HIV/STD Prevention which voted unanimously on Nov. 21 to call for repeal of the sodomy law. All three groups are members of the Coalition for Privacy which
aims to provide education and support around the repeal attempt.
In addition, GLCAC has listed its priorities as: domestic partnership; marriage; gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender (GLBT) youth; hate crimes; and protection of the 1993 Human Rights Amendment.
Lobby continued on page 4
Over the years the Loring Park area has seen cruising and prostitution rise and fall, now a coalition of groups is hoping to come up with new solutions to the traffic and safety problems in the neighborhood.
Plans cut for Medicaid AIDS funding
by Rachel Gold
Minnesota AIDS Project Public Policy Director Bob Tracy
With the White House changing its mind about allocating Medicaid coverage to provide treatments for low-income people living with AIDS, Clinton�s Presidential Council on HIV/AIDS has criticized his administration for slackness in the fight against AIDS.
Clinton�s AIDS advisors issued a report last Sunday, far more neg-
Internet summit protects children
by Rachel Gold
What recently held summit featured a list of issues prepared by the Family Research Council (FRC), Focus on the Family, and the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), among others? The Internet Online Summit: Focus on Children, convened Dec. 1-3, brought together an eclectic group of politicians, business people and activists for a look at child safety on the Internet.
In conjunction with the summit, GLAAD released a report on Internet Filtering Software and ratings systems, �Access Denied: The Impact of Internet Filtering Software on the Lesbian and Gay Community.�
�The majority of software currently on the market, as well as new
products in development, place informational Web sites serving the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community in the same categories as sexually explicit sites,� the report said. �The software developers are either unable or unwilling to consider that information about sexual orientation and identity (e.g., a gay square dancing site) has nothing to do with sexual behavior, and everything to do with culture and identity.�
Also in the midst of the summit, Vice President A1 Gore gave a speech in which he enumerated a series of steps toward Internet safety including the release of the U.S. Department of Education�s Parents Guide to the Internet (1-800-USA-LEARN or http://www.ed.gov/pubs/par-
ents/internet/).
�This guide is intended to help parents - regardless of their level of technological know how - make use of the on-line world as an impor-tant educational tool,� said U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley.
The Vice President also announced a new commitment for a �zero tolerance� policy for child pornography on the Internet. He was joined by leading Internet service provider (ISP) associations representing 95 percent of home Internet users and backed up by a new partnership between the leading ISP associations and law enforcement authorities.
Internet continued on page 11
ative than their 1996 report, saying that the White House has decreased the priority of AIDS issues, the Associated Press reported. Included in the list of criticisms was the cancellation of the Medicaid plan.
The report held up Clinton�s increases in funding and research moneys, drug programs and search for a vaccine as examples of excellent advances made by the administration. But it also pointed out that most of the advances occurred during Clinton�s first term.
�Despite substantial and diligent efforts ... the progress in the federal response to AIDS has stalled in recent months, contributing to a sense of diminished priority for AIDS issues during the president�s second term,� the report said.
Two days before the report was released, Department of Health and Human Services spokesman Victor Zonana announced that the plan to cover drug costs with Medicaid would not happen, according to the New York Times.
Currently Medicaid only covers the drugs once a person living with AIDS is disabled by the disease. The new plan would have given drugs to anyone with HIV who is unable to afford treatment.
�The current Medicaid eligibility system is seriously out of alignment with the recommended stan-
dard of care for the treatment of HIV disease,� the Advisory Council report said.
According to the Times: Vice President A1 Gore and other officials hoped the cost of the drugs, up to $15,000 a year, would be offset by the money saved by having healthier patients. However, Zonana explained Friday, �We have not been able to find a revenue-neutral way to do it� The government would only have been able to change the Medicaid policy if the saved hospitalization costs would have balanced out the price of the drugs over a five year period of time.
However, the Times reported that one official said other issues than simple cost drove the decision to cancel the plan. He explained that decision makers were also responding to the advocates for other disease groups who have complained that people with HIV have received better treatment than their groups.
States are under the same constraint as the federal government to make their costs balance out over a five year period, but will not be able to create their own plans for doing so.
The report went on to talk about prevention issues.
Medicaid continued on page 5
After the first of the year, the Gay and Lesbian Community Action Council (GLCAC) will change its name to �Q-Minnesota,� the latest step in a year of changes calculat-
GLCAC/Q-M innesota Executive Director Ann DeGroot
by Rachel Gold